trad
George ‘Pop’ Maynard recorded in 1956 and that recording says the song is probably a stage remake of a song which appeared in Ravenscroft’s Deuteromelia of 1609. The Watersons recorded in 1965 for which Bert Lloyd wrote “Versions of this old nursery song are spread from Scotland to Sussex, and it has even cropped up as a ritual piece in one or two sword-dance plays. It’s hard to say how old it is, but it seems to have first appeared in print in Gammer Gurton’s Garland at the end of the eighteenth century, though doubtless it has been on the go long before then.”
In good King Arthur’s day when we lived under the King, Three roguish chaps fell into mishaps because they could not singÿ Because they could not sing, because they could not sing, Three roguish chaps fell into mishaps because they could not sing. The first one was a miller, the second one was a weaver, And the third he was a little tailor, three roguish chaps together. Three roguish chaps together, three roguish chaps together. And the third he was a little tailor, three roguish chaps together. The miller he stole corn. The weaver he stole yarn. And the little tailor he stole broadcloth, to keep the three rogues warm. The miller he drowned in his dam, and the weaver got hung in his yarn, And the devil put his claw on the little tailor with the broadcloth under his arm. The miller still drowns in his dam, and the weaver still hangs in his yarn, And the little tailor he skips through hell with the broadcloth under his arm.